Wire fabric



Dec. 4, 1962 w. F. RICHARDSON 3,

WIRE FABRIC Filed March 29, 1960 INVENT Afro/way.

souri Filed Mar. 29, 1960, Ser. No. 18,351 10 (Ilaims. (Cl. 245-5) Thisinvention relates to new and useful improvements in wire fabrics, and isan improvement over the fabric disclosed in my co-pending applicationSerial No. 744,- 988, filed June 27, 1958, now Patent No. 3,012,742.

My above identified prior application disclosed a wire fabric whichwhile having general applicability for use wherever a wire fabric may bedesired, was described primarily for use as an upholstery accessorycommonly known as an insulator pad, which is a reinforced, flexiblefabric inserted between the spring assembly or deck and the paddinglayers of an upholstered furniture or automobile seat or the like. Theprimary functions of the insulator pad are to provide a smoother, morecontinuous base for the padding whereby to provide greater comfort and aneater appearance, and to prevent the padding itself from working intothe spaces between or within the coil springs or other spring unitsmaking up the spring deck. The pad disclosed in my prior applicationconsisted of an open, planar frame formed of heavy wire, and a series ofsimilarly formed resilient wires attached at their ends to said frameand extending across said frame in generally parallel relation. Each ofsaid wires was formed to present a series of closed loops joined byconnecting portions of the wire, said connecting portions intersectingat the base of each loop and extending in generally opposite directionstherefrom. Each loop extended through a corresponding loop of the nextadjacent Wire, whereby said Wires were joined in a knitted fabric.

The above described fabric possessed certain advantages particularlywhen used as an insulator pad. It was elastic in all directions in itsown plane as well as transversely to its place, as distinguished fromcommonly used insulator pads which, while pliable or flexible, arecompletely inelastic and unyieldable in their own planes. This caused alocalization of deflection when a load was applied to the cushion. Thatis, only the portion directly beneath the area of load application wouldbe appreciably depressed, while even closely adjacent areas would berelatively unaffected. This resulted from the fact that the fabric wouldstretch resiliently when tension of the wires tended to cause closure ofthe loops of the wires. It was a decided improvement over inelastic padswhich tended to hammock and cause a localized load to depress the padover a much greater area. Good practice requires, for greatest comfort,that the deflection resulting from a load be localized as much aspossible to the actual area of load application. Another advantage wasthat the localization of deflection tended to prevent creeping movementof the pad and its eventual dislocation from its proper position betweenthe spring deck and padding, said movement resulting, in inelastic pads,from tensions therein which cause bunching or wrinkling of the pad.

However, the fabric disclosed in my prior co-pending application wassubject to a serious disadvantage in that it was virtually unmanageablein handling during installation, due to the fact that unless its edgeswere secured as in a frame, it became rolled and tangled in an unwieldyconglomeration resembling a birds nest or a tangled mass of spaghetti.Once the wires had become disarranged in this manner, it was anextremely tedious job, virtually impossible in any commercially feasibletrite State atet sense, to untangle the wires and again lay the fabricout fiat. For this reason, it was necessary to affix the wires in aframe as shown, or the like, as the fabric was originally formed, inorder to avoid such entanglement. This greatly limited the usefulness ofthe fabric, since in many applications the frame could not be used,since the frames necessarily had to be of a manageable size and couldnot economically be provided in all of the sizes corresponding to thefabric sizes and shapes eventually to be utilized, and since the fabriccould not be supplied in continuous rolls from which the desired shapescould be cut as needed.

The principal object of the present invention is, therefore, theprovision of a wire fabric of the general character described which willnot roll, nor will the wires thereof become disarranged, when the edgesof the fabric are free and unrestrained, but which on the contrary willlie smooth and flat, without disarrangement of any sort, whenunrestrained. Generally, this object is accomplished by providing thatthe loops of each wire extend through the loops of the adjoining wire inalternately opposite directions. That is, one loop extends through thecorresponding loop of the adjacent wire from one face of the fabric tothe other, say from the back face toward the front face of the fabric,while the next loop extends through the corresponding loop of saidadjacent wire from front to back, and so forth. Thus the resilientflexure of the wires resulting from each loop connection is balanced byan equal and opposite flexure at adjacent loop connections, and thefabric therefore will lie smooth and flat without restraint.

Other objects are simplicity and economy of structure, adaptability formass production on automatic machinery, and adaptability for use in awide variety of applications.

With these objects in view, as well as other objects which will appearin the course of the specification, reference will be had to thedrawing, which is a face view of a section of wire fabric embodying thepresent invention.

Referring to the drawing, the numeral 2 indicates gen erally a sectionof wire fabric embodying the present invention. Said fabric comprises aseries of similarly configurated resilient wires 4, 6, 8, i0, 12, l4,16, etc. ex tending in generally parallel relation, horizontally of thedrawing sheet. Each of such wires is formed to present a series ofregularly spaced apart, generally coplanar loops each bearing a primednumeral corresponding to the numeral indicating the wire in which theyare formed. Thus the loops of wire 4 are numbered 4', the loops of wire6 are numbered 6', etc. The loops of each wire are joined by connectingportions of the wire, said connecting portions each bearing adouble-primed numeral corresponding to the numeral indicating the wireof which they form parts. Thus the connecting portions of wire 4 arenumbered 4", etc. The loops of each wire are closed, that is, each loopis complete, the connecting portions of the Wire adjacent said loopintersect at the base of the loop, and extend in generally oppositedirections therefrom. This provides that when any of the wires istensioned, it is longitudinally elongated by the resilient closure ofthe loops therein. All of the loops lie gen orally in the plane of thefabric. The connecting portions of each wire form generally parallel,scalloped lines extending across the fabric, and the loops thereof areoffset laterally to one side only of said scalloped line.

The loops of each wire extend alternately upwardly and downwardlythrough the corresponding loops of the next adjacent wire. For example,the loops 6' of wire 6 are inserted or extend alternately upwardly anddownwardly through the loops 3 of wire 8, and so on. That is, everyother loop 6 extends through its corresponding spa es? loop 8 from theback to the front of said loop 8', while the alternate loops 6' extendthrough their corresponding loops 8' from the front to the back. Thusthe loops, while they are resiliently flexed by their interengagedrelationship, are flexed alternately in opposite directions, so that theresilient strain in one loop is balanced by the equal and oppositestrain in adjacent loops in the same wire, and therefore there is notendency of the fabric to roll about an axis parallel to the generaldirection or extent of the wires.

It is nevertheless still true that if all of the wires were joined asjust described, so that a row of loops constituting the correspondingloops of each of the wires, such as a row of loops 4, 6', 8, 16, etc.,at right angles to the general direction of the wires, were successivelyinserted through each other in the same direction, such as from the backto the front of the fabric, the fabric would still have a tendency whenunrestrained to roll on an axis at right angles to the general directionof the wires. To prevent this, so that the fabric will lie smooth andflat, each row of loops 4, 6', 8', is, etc., is also arranged so thatsuccessive loops therein extend alternatively oppositely through eachother. This arrangement is in direct contrast to that of my priorco-pending application as above described, wherein each loop of eachwire was extended in the same direction through the corresponding loopof the next adjacent wire. In the present structure it should be notedthat it is not essential that the direction of extension of the loopsthrough each other need not be precisely alternating. For example, twosuccessive loops could be inserted in one direction, and the next twoinserted in the opposite direction. It is necessary only thatsubstantially equal numbers of loops be inserted in each of therelatively opposite directions, and that the pattern of reversal begenerally uniform over the entire area of the fabric. Also, it will beevident that the ends of the wires may be secured in any suitable mannerto form a selvage edge to prevent unravelling of the fabric.

While I have shown and described a specific embodi ment of my invention,it will be apparent that many minor changes therein could be madewithout departing from the spirit of the invention as defined by thescope of the appended claims.

What I claim as new and desire to protect by Letters Patent is:

1. A wire fabric comprising a series of similarly configurated wiresdisposed in generally parallel relation, each of said wires forming aseries of spaced apart loops and connecting portions joining said loops,said connecting portions establishing a general line and said loopsbeing ofiset laterally in one direction from said general line,corresponding loops in said wires being disposed in transverse rowsextending at right angles to the general extent of said wires, all ofsaid loops and connecting portions being disposed in a plane determiningthe plane of the fabric, certain loops of each of said wires extendingthrough the corresponding loops of the next adjacent wire in a directionfrom a first face of said fabric toward the second face thereof, and theremainder of the loops of each of said wires extending through thecorresponding loops of said next adjacent wire in a direction from saidsecond face toward said first face of said fabric.

2. A wire fabric as recited in claim 1 wherein the loops of each of saidwires are closed in the sense that each loop is complete, the connectingportions of said wire adjoining said loop intersecting at the base ofsaid loop and extending in generally opposite directions therefrom.

3. A wire fabric as recited in claim 2 wherein each successive loop ofeach of said wires extends through the corresponding loop of the nextadjacent wire alternately in a direction from a first face toward asecond face of the fabric, and in a direction from said second facetoward said first face.

4. A wire fabric as defined in claim 3 wherein the loops of each of saidwires are closed in the sense that each loop is complete, the connectingportions of said wire adjoining said loop intersecting at the base ofsaid loop and extending in generally opposite directions therefrom.

5. A wire fabric comprising a series of similarly configurated wiresdisposed in generally parallel relation, each of said wires formin aseries of spaced apart loops and connecting portions joining said loops,said connecting portions establishing a general line and said loopsbeing oilset laterally in one direction from said general line,corresponding loops in said wires being disposed in transverse rowsextending at right angles to the general extent of said wires, all ofsaid loops and connecting portions being disposed in a plane determiningthe plane of the frabric, certain loops of each of said transverse rowsof loops extending through the next adjacent loops in said row in adirection from a first face toward the opposite face of said fabric, andthe remainder of the loops in said transverse row extending through thenext adjacent loops in said row in a direction from said opposite facetoward said first face.

6. A wire fabric as defined in claim 5 wherein the loops of each of saidwires are closed in the sense that each loop is complete, the connectingportions of said wire adjoining said loop intersecting at the base ofsaid loop and extending in generally opposite directions therefrom.

7. A wire fabric as defined in claim 5 wherein each successive loop ineach of said transverse rows of loops extends through the next adjacentloop in said row, alternately in a direction from a first face towardthe opposite face of said fabric, and in a direction from said oppositeface toward said first face.

8. A wire fabric as defined in claim 7 wherein the loops of each of saidwires are closed in the sense that each loop is complete, the connectingportions of said wire adjoining said loop intersecting at the base ofsaid loop and extending in generally opposite directions therefrom.

9. A wire fabric comprising a series of similarly configurated wiresdisposed in generally parallel relation, each of said wires forming aseries of spaced apart loops and connecting portions joining said loops,said connecting portions establishing a general line and said loopsbeing offset laterally in one direction from said general line,corresponding loops in said wires being disposed in transverse rowsextending at right angles to the general extent of said wires, all ofsaid loops and connecting portions being disposed in a plane determiningthe plane of the fabric, certain loops of each of said wires and in eachof said transverse rows of loops, extending through the correspondingloops of the next adjacent wire in a direction from a first face of saidfabric toward the second face thereof, and the remainder of the loops ofeach of said wires, and in each of said'transverse rows of loops,extending through the corresponding loops of said next adjacent wire ina direction from said second face toward said first face of said fabric.

10. A wire fabric as defined in claim 9 wherein the loops of each ofsaid wires are closed in the sense that each loop is complete, theconnecting portions of said wire adjoining said loop intersecting at thebase of said loop and extending in generally opposite directionsthererrorn.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS213,363 Wakeman Mar. 18, 1879 346,317 Scarles July 27, 1886 1,952,873King Mar. 27, 1934 2,218,560 Stephens Oct. 22, 1940'

